Josh McKoon’s Donald Trump-style politics

Author and #1 cheerleader of Georgia’s “license to discriminate” bill that was rejected by his colleagues and Georgia’s business community for the second time last year, Sen. McKoon recently announced a series of press conferences to roll out his look-at-me 2016 legislative agenda.

He held the first one last week to bash immigrants, and Better Georgia was there.

This week, McKoon used the microphone to attack immigrants and promise legislation to fix a California problem that doesn’t even exist in Georgia.

Then, he took to Twitter to attack Better Georgia.

It’s no surprise. McKoon loves attention and he’s a master at using the wedge issues that divide us to gin up support from extremists and get the cameras rolling.

This would all be just one giant yawn, except everyone knows that, just like Trump, Sen. McKoon is an ambitious man. Sen. McKoon’s series of press conferences is preparation for a run at a statewide office in 2018.

Can you imagine?

We know Georgians will reject Josh McKoon’s hateful agenda if they know about it. But, frankly, Mckoon is slick and well-funded. He wraps discrimination in the blankets of “religious freedom” and “public safety” in an effort to fool the public while appealing to extremists.

It’s the worst kind of dangerous, dog-whistle politics — not the kind of leadership Georgians need or want.

We don’t know whether Josh McKoon has his sights set on Attorney General, Lt. Governor or even Governor.

But, what we do know is that McKoon wants even more power to impose his destructive brand of divisive, hate-filled politics on the entire state. His current PR campaign is designed to appeal to the well-funded right wing extremists he hopes will help finance his campaign.

Frankly, it’s not a bad plan.

With his rise in the polls, Donald Trump has proven that extremism sells to the GOP base. No wonder Josh McKoon is using the Trump playbook.

That’s why we’re counting on you to help us expose Josh McKoon and others like him who are more interested in self-promotion than public service.

We have to stop him, and together, I know we can.

Just this year, when Sen. McKoon promoted legislation to permit discrimination under the guise of “religious freedom,” you helped stop him in his tracks.

But, we won’t lie to you. It was a tough fight that McKoon nearly won, and he’s promised to bring that dangerous legislation back again next year.